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JAMB and admission criteria

By Editorial Board
22 July 2016   |   4:52 am
The raging controversy over what criteria should be used to admit candidates into tertiary institutions and who determines it is unnecessary and embarrassing as it advertises Nigeria as a nation without a clear system and without standards.
Candidates at a post-UME centre

Candidates at a post-UME centre

The raging controversy over what criteria should be used to admit candidates into tertiary institutions and who determines it is unnecessary and embarrassing as it advertises Nigeria as a nation without a clear system and without standards.

For more than five decades, universities and other tertiary institutions in the country have taken in students without any hitch. It is, therefore, incomprehensible that the 2016 admission exercise is so mired in crisis.Indeed, contrary to claims, the scrapping of post-UTME tests is not enough to cause chaos in this year’s admission process. Prior to the introduction of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and its allied post-UTME which came much later, tertiary institutions in the country were admitting candidates without contention. Qualified candidates applied to the individual institutions and the best were offered admission.

The final authority on admission should be the Senate of each university and not JAMB. JAMB’s assignment should end with the conduct of the entrance examination and release of the results. The institutions have the legal right to admit qualified and suitable candidates based on their established standards as part of their autonomy.

The setting of a flat cut-off mark of 180 by JAMB is also an aberration. Ideally, JAMB, after releasing its results, should allow the universities to determine their minimum cut-off marks, which ought to vary from one institution to another as the difference between institutions distinguishes them. All the universities cannot, therefore, have the same standard or adopt the same criteria for admission.

The current contention arose after JAMB was alleged to have approved a point system as an option for admission, insisting that the Federal Government gave the nod. It, however, stated that the point system being peddled was a mere illustration. The point system, of course, has been in use by some institutions for some time in place of the post-UTME.

But JAMB clarified the position that rather than resort to the much-touted point system, the Federal Government had approved the re-enforcement of the admission guidelines as recognised by law. The three admission pillars, according to JAMB, are merit, catchment area and educationally disadvantaged states. But that is stating the obvious for there has never been a time the so-called three pillars were ignored in the admission process. Even at that, the concept of “educationally disadvantaged states” needs to be redefined since every state of the federation now has no less than two universities.

The nation will, however, return to the old order by re-introducing Advanced Levels (A/L). Age is an important issue when it comes to tertiary level education because there is little supervision of the student. Only a mind that is fully developed with a vision of what he or she wants can’t easily be influenced. The prevalence of cults in Nigeria’s educational institutions is partly due to the immaturity of the students.

The universities should be allowed to brand their admission the way they want. In the United States and UK, there is the scholastic aptitude test (SAT) and A/Levels, that some universities require a certain grade as precondition for admission. The monopoly of university admission by JAMB has lowered the admission standards and that is why 180 score over 400 is deemed acceptable for admission. Nigeria with its current educational system is merely promoting mediocrity in a world where competition is keen and there is no room for sloppiness of skills.

This newspaper insists that the very low cut-off mark for entrance into Nigerian universities is deplorable and can never produce the best brains the country needs. With standards so low, this country is only institutionalising mediocrity.

There must be a sensible way of setting standards. One is to go back to advanced Level system in which higher school certificate education of two or more years prepare all students for university.

University education is about excellence. But Nigerian universities have been reduced to less than their worth. Nigeria cannot excel when all universities are placed on the same level. Again, each university should be free to set its minimum entry point based on the standard it has set for itself.

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8 Comments

  • Author’s gravatar

    University education simply mean universal education. The universal standard for universal education is the independence of the university Senate. JAMB is a political creation set up to assist universities in the process of admitting students. If the universities no longer need such assistance from JAMB, then scrap JAMB. Most worry some is the simple truth that JAMB has been compromised and is a failed institution morally and structurally.

  • Author’s gravatar

    I agree that JAMB has failed with the standard however Nigerian Universities cannot be absorb of the same thing they have alleged JAMB, again the fate of Nigerian students from humble background should be considered the cost of post JAMB in some Nigerian Universities is triple that of JAMB this aside the various fees students are to pay after gaining admission such as Acceptance fee. Acceptance fees to me is a crime, I find it hard to understand why a student would be required to pay such after writing several exams what then is the intention of seeking admission.

  • Author’s gravatar

    There is nothing wrong with Jamb. The exam is strong enough to be used to select good students. It has been used since 1978 to 2015. I scored 256 in 1983 and study Engineering at Unilag. There is absolutely no need for post utme exam. Most of the lecturers that are advocating for the scraping of Jamb also gained admission into the University via the same exam body.
    All that the Universities need to do is to help fine tune the CBT being conducted by the body.
    To prevent malpactice, Jamb should only use higher institutions as the centres for CBT. Each candidate should have a type ranging from A to Z joggle among candidates. Once you log in your Registration number, all your types will be there for you with max of 4 hours. Once start, your four hours start reducing. If you submit be end og your time, your total score shows. If the time elaspes on you, you total will still show.
    The questions and answers to candidates in each centre should be submitted in a disc to the office of the VC of the school. As a candidate finishes and submits his or her answers, total score shows for the candidate. There is no need to log on to the internet because it fails atimes.
    The exam should be conducted on a local network of computers in the school and the data in the disc after the exam can only be read-only and up loaded from the office of the VC to Jamb site. Meanwhile, the VC is the one Jamb hands over the disc to and it is the office of the VC that uploads the results on Jamb site. With this malpractices will be eliminated.

  • Author’s gravatar

    There is nothing wrong with Jamb. The exam is strong enough to be used to select good students. It has been used since 1978 to 2015. I scored 256 in 1983 and studied Engineering at Unilag. There is absolutely no need for post utme exam. Most of the lecturers that are advocating for the scraping of Jamb also gained admission into the University via the same exam body.
    All that the Universities need to do is to help fine tune the CBT being conducted by the body.
    To prevent malpactices, Jamb should only use higher institutions as the centres for CBT. Each candidate should have a type ranging from A to Z joggle among candidates. Once you log in your Registration number, all your types will be there for you with max of 4 hours. Once started, your four hours start reducing. If you submit before end of your time, your total score shows. If the time elaspes on you, your total will still show.
    The questions and answers to candidates in each centre should be submitted in a disc to the office of the VC of the school. As a candidate finishes and submits his or her answers, total score shows for the candidate. There is no need to log on to the internet because it fails atimes.
    The exam should be conducted on a local network of computers in the school and the data in the disc after the exam can only be read-only and up loaded from the office of the VC to Jamb site. Meanwhile, the VC is the only one Jamb hands over the disc to and it is the office of the VC that uploads the results on Jamb site. With this malpractices will be eliminated

    • Author’s gravatar

      Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm sounds laudable, but implementation is always the problem in Nigeria. Can the VCs trust the present day highly inefficient and compromised JAMB officials?

      • Author’s gravatar

        You are right Kehinde, they are highly inefficient and compromised. Well we have now identified a major challenge in solving this problem. Jamb should identify very few hands that can be trusted and commit the handling of the questions into their hands.
        Even some universities officials are very corrupt. I know a University in Nigeria where some of the officials have links with some Post Utme preparatory centres where if could you pay as much as N500k for the preparatory, you are assured of your course. They get the questions to the venue the night before the post utme and revise them with students over night. Of course, if 200 questions are set, out of which you are to be tested on only 50 or 40 and you have known the answers to all the questions, you are bound to do well. Many things are going on in the education system. I will like to also like to reveal that even waec and neco are all compromised. Most of the private secondary schools where you pay exhorbitantly per term for your wards charge extra cost for the registration of o/level exams. Why? The money is used to sort the officials of the examining bodies. When the results are released, half of those who wrote the exam will make 6 As. This is why I am not in support of the point system.
        I think the Universities, Jamb,:all O and A levels examining bodies and NUC must come together and fine tune the entire educational system. The law should also be hard on those engaged in malpracrices.
        As for 2016 admission, the federal government has spoken and it should be followed. Otherwise, Nigeria may be view and perceived as a lawless country.

    • Author’s gravatar

      Except we deal with corruption on every area of our life, policies will always be compromised. Let us go back to premilitary era when institutions were independent of political directives on education